Heating Oil (B5)

[NoBozo]

My last delivery of #2 heating oil is now 5% "Bio Fuel". There's a new company in Newport, RI that is taking restaurant cooking oil and Refining it into "Bio Fuel". The energy content seems to be VERY close to regular #2 fuel oil. (I looked it up..:look:)

My heating oil company has decided to Go GREEN and use it. Every oil truck goes over to the Bio Fuel refiner (a separate company) with a load of #2 fuel oil in the truck, and 125 gallons of Bio Fuel is added to the #2.

In my case there were some teething problems with the first batch running in my 35 year old oil burning furnace, that I learned about after the fact. Lets just say I was one of many unknowing Beta Testers . I think even the Fuel Oil company didn't know what was going on. The furnace was producing obnoxious fumes that you could actually Smell and Taste throughout the house. BTW: The fumes produced were NOT Carbon Monoxide, which will give you a splitting headache just before it kills you.

The Fuel Oil company sent a technician out to the house to find the problem. After many tests with some expensive equipment it was determined that Bio Fuel needs much less AIR fed to the burner, or it will smoke.

The solution was to close down the adjustable "air bands" on the burner blower by perhaps 80% to allow less air into the fuel stream. It's been a few days now and the smell and fumes are gone. The cost of the Bio Fuel is the same as #2 fuel................SO FAR. :D

One of the inconveniences of Bio Fuel is it can't be left outside in cold weather because it will congeal and clog up everything. Even delivery trucks can't be left outside with the Bio Mix without heaters. ..heaters...:laugh: I wonder how much energy it takes to keep a truckload of Bio Fuel warm all night.

I'll have you know I am now doing my part to save the planet....5% at a time. :D :D NB

http://www.newportbiodiesel.com/cms/

http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/BTU_Content_Final_Oct2005.pdf

[This'nThat]

Actually, there's a law about this. Called the "Law of unintended consequences", and you listed a lot of them:

Additional pollution (extra smoke as you reported)
Adjustments and maintenance on heating systems not designed for biofuel
Additional energy expenditures to keep said fuel from congealing on trucks
Banning of all existing outdoors fuel storage containers
Additional gas used to haul loaded fuel truck to secondary biofuel loading docks
Now -- just wait till "Cap and Tax" is upon us. The unintended consequences will be huge. Just like the health care bill. And lots of other idealistic, unpractical things rammed down our throats by liberal "do it my way" critters.

[fatlazyless]

From what I know about oil fired boilers or furnaces, the heating oil comes out of the small 3" x 3" square oil pump on the side of the firing unit usually at 150 psi, which is very high pressure, and travels through the little curvy copper tube into a tiny oil passage in the middle of the brass firing nozzle. Getting forced through the nozzle causes the heating oil to become atomized into thousands of tiny droplets that get ignited by a continuous high voltage firing electrode just below the fine spray inside the fire box of the boiler or furnace.

By the way, #2 heating oil is nothing like a lubicating oil. It is not at all slippery. It is skinnier or more viscuos than water, very skinny, dyed reddish, and is pretty smelly stuff. It is very similar to diesel fuel which gets dyed blue for taxing purposes and it is combustible in that it burns and is not flammable (flash-explosive) like gasoline.

Mixing in a 5% bio-fat oil sounds like it could maybe decrease the viscosity by thickening up the blend, just a little bit, and changing the spray pattern that comes out of the nozzle, and hence the firing pattern which probably has something to do with its' need for less air (79% nitrogen, 21% oxygen) to create a steady, hot, firing pattern inside the boiler or furnace.

The hardware store in Ashland NH has a good selection of different sized, home heating oil, firing nozzles for about $6.95 each. So, some people maybe do their own annual boiler/furnace dirty soot cleaning and nozzle/filter change to save some money and enjoy getting all dirty doing it themself by steel brushing the old black soot and vacuuming it out of the heat exchanger areas for either a boiler (hot water) or furnace (hot air). Customers just bring in the old dirty nozzle and get a new match-up, good to go for another year, along with a spin-on heating oil filter similar to a car oil filter.

Necessity is the .....(you know the rest)....

[bigdog]

Thanks 'Fatlazyless', for explaining how an oil heating/furnace system works for us laymen, and removing much of the mystery !

Very intersting ! The way sometimes your oil burner Tech explains it, they sound like you have nuclear scientist or genious to understand.

Obviously, oil furnace maintenance may still be beyond most home-owners
abilities, and difficutl issues should not not attempted.

BD

[TomC]

most vocational schools teach a course in oil burner technology, often at night, and for a fee that may turn out to be not much more than one service call. If a source of parts can be identified, DIY maintenance can be a real cost-saver. If you decide to get educated and take this on, bear in mind that you will be dealing with an appliance that controls a flame, so don't bite off more than you can chew...

[SIKSUKR]

Thanks 'Fatlazyless', for explaining how an oil heating/furnace system works for us laymen, and removing much of the mystery !
Very intersting ! The way sometimes your oil burner Tech explains it, they sound like you have nuclear scientist or genious to understand.
BD

When something is more viscous, it is thicker. Less viscous is thinner.

[NoBozo]

I forgot to mention: The State of Massachusetts has a New Law.. the entire state WILL COMPLY. By July 2010 the entire state WILL comply with B2 for home heating oil. By 2013 the entire state WILL comply with B5. This is mentioned in one of the links I posted above...I think under NEWS. Just sayin.